Falling In Love Again
by cheesebucket
Summary: Noah and Rachel throughout the years. When you love someone this much, every little thing can make you fall in love with them all over again.


He falls in love with her when they're six. They're playing tag behind the synagogue while their parents talk inside after a particularly boring Saturday morning service. He's chasing her, grinning as her laughter fills the air. When he trips over a protruding tree root and rips open the elbow of his blue button-up shirt, causing some pretty bad scraping (for a six year old, that is), he knows his mom will be pissed. When she runs back, her eyes wide as she crouches next to him and pulls an antiseptic wipe out of the pocket of her tiny dress, he thinks she might be some sort of nursing angel. And when she puts a bandaid (from the same pocket; he never finds out why she used to carry so many first aid supplies around with her) on his scrapes, and kisses his elbow gently, he's pretty sure he falls in love with her a little.

She falls in love with him when they're thirteen. It's her bat mitzvah party, and none of the girls or boys from school show up. The only people there around her age are her cousins (who are all a few years older and are too busy downing drinks pilfered from their parents to pay much attention to her), Jacob Ben Israel (the creepiest person she's ever met, he's busy trying to look up the skirts of any women within his immediate surroundings), and Noah. His mother obviously forced him to come, so he didn't have much choice. But when he asks her to dance and sees her eyes light up, he supposes it was worth it. She wraps her arms around his neck and lays her head on his shoulder. For those three and a half minutes, to her, they're the only two people in the world and when his hands press a little harder on the small of her back just before he lets her go, she thinks she might love him.

The second time he falls in love with her, they're sophomores with a lot of history between the two of them. She's just revealed the biggest secret he's ever been asked to keep, and while he might _like_ her for that, something else happens. He goes to look for Quinn, to make sure she's okay, and he sees Rachel talking to her. Rachel, the girl who's been the brunt of much of Quinn's torturing for years, is attempting to make her feel better. He's amazed how much she can care about his baby mama, even when baby mama hates her. He passes her in the hallway with an awkward duck of his head, attempting to hide the possible look of adoration in his eyes.

When he kisses her at prom, she falls in love with him again. She went with Kurt as her date, since she and Finn had broken up almost three months prior. Of course, she had no problem attending with Kurt on her arm—he was extremely well-dressed and obviously a better dancer than Finn. He finds her in the choir room after Quinn and Finn are announced prom queen and king. She's sitting at the piano, plucking out a few keys and humming to herself before she notices him. They exchange pleasantries for a few moments as he settles next to her, and when his lips slant over hers, she feels her world tilt on its axis. Their tongues tangle for what seems like hours and when they pull back for air, they're still clutching at each other. He buries his face in her hair and murmurs something about waiting too long and missed moments, and she's pretty sure she's a little bit in love with him.

Two years later, they're shacking up in a small studio in Brooklyn. She's working toward her degree at Julliard, and he's about to start a composition program at the City College of New York after two years of online classes to get his gen ed courses out of the way. They're very domestic about the whole thing—grocery shopping, cooking, and decorating together. He's just finished a 12-hour shift at the diner where he works and he comes home to find her sprawled out on their bed, surrounded by the books she's been studying from non-stop for her last two finals of the semester. When she shifts in her sleep, curling her knees up slightly, and whimpers a soft, "Noah," he's nearly positive he could love this woman for the rest of his life.

She doesn't realize how much she loves him until he says the words. They're back in Lima for the weekend because her dads are renewing their vows and heading off on a month-long trip to Europe. At the small reception, he's holding her hand as she chugs glass after glass of wine, trying her hardest not to freak about her fathers leaving the continent for four entire weeks. When he sweeps her hair off the side of her face to press a kiss where her neck meets her shoulder, she shivers, and when his lips meet her ear and he whispers the words, she knows that no matter what happens, she'll always have him to protect her, and that makes everything okay.

The moment comes, and his palms are sweating like crazy, and he's sure she suspects something. Luckily, she's playing along and acts surprised when he drops down onto one knee by her side in the middle of the restaurant. (She doesn't have to _act_ surprised, she actually is. She didn't suspect a thing, she was just afraid he was coming down with the flu.) When she jumps out of her chair, exclaiming her agreement as he slides the ring onto her tiny finger, he's pretty sure he's never loved her more. Never loved _anything _more.

On their wedding day, she's glad Kurt made her wear waterproof mascara, because Puck is spouting off these amazing words as his vows and her eyes and cheeks are soaking wet. And when she feels him kiss her with more passion than she's never felt in her entire life, then looks out to see her fathers and new mother- and sister-in-law, she thinks that if nothing else, she loves him for providing with the mother she always wanted.

He comes home one day and she's in the shower, singing louder than usual. When he strips out of his clothes and joins her under the water, she starts screaming about getting him getting home to early, how she was going to cook an amazing dinner so they could celebrate her role in the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie. He interrupts her as she tells him he ruined everything with an intense kiss, pushing her against the tiled wall. As he enters her and she sings out his name, he's pretty sure he's in love with how happy (and _wet_) she is when she gets a new role.

She's in between shows when she realizes something is off. She's trying extremely hard not to freak out, but she's still as dramatic as ever and staying calm has never been her strong suit. So when she sees the word "Positive" in that little window, she breaks down in tears. It's not as if she's upset, or that she doesn't want kids, she just always planned on, you know, _planning_ them. When he comes home and finds her crying on the bathroom floor, he gathers her in his arms before even noticing the small white stick lying next to her. His breath catches in his throat as the word registers in his brain. And when he lifts her up, laughing with joy and excitement, she can't help but join him. The way he kisses her when he sets her down makes her realize that as much as she loves him, and he loves her, that they're going to have a lot more love to give in about nine months.

He _doesn't_ love her pregnancy hormones. She drives him crazy with her mood swings and insane cravings, but she also gives him a lot of head, so he kind of loves her for that. He also loves her for letting him actually be involved in this pregnancy (not that he ever thought she wouldn't, he's just excited). The day they find out they're having a little girl, he wipes away a few contained tears. He comes home two days later to find a wrapped box on the table with his name on the small card. When he gets the box open and sees two t-shirts, one his size which says "I love my little girl" and a tiny, baby-sized one that reads, "I love my awesome daddy," he has to wipe a few more tears away and accept the fact that he loves his wife, but he might love his daughter a little more.

The moment she hears the high-pitched cries of her baby, she doesn't think she's ever loved him more in her life. As she cradles her newborn, June (named after the month in which they made their relationship official all those years ago), she smiles up at him with so many tears in her eyes she can barely see straight. And when June immediately relaxes the moment she's placed in Noah's arms, Rachel doesn't think anyone could ever find a family as perfect as hers is. She lets him hold June while she sleeps, and when she wakes up to find him in bed with her, pressing soft kisses all over her face and whispering how beautiful and perfect she is, she's not sure which one of his girls he's talking about. And that makes her love him even more.

She grows up faster than either of them imagined possible. It seems as though one day she's taking her first steps, and the next she's 18 and getting on a plane to California. Over the years, they watch each other interact with their gorgeous little girl turned young woman, and they're both in awe of how amazing they've become as parents. He loves watching Rachel treat June like a little princess, dressing her up in adorable outfits and styling her hair, and she loves watching Puck take care of her when she scrapes her knee or boys break her heart. They complement each other perfectly, forming a cohesive parenting unit. As Rachel watches Puck pull back the veil and kiss their little girl before returning to her side and gripping her hand, she knows. She knows that this man she's fortunate enough to call her husband is the man she's going to fall in love with over and over again for the rest of her life. And when he watches her wipe away tears as their daughter is pronounced to be someone's wife, he's sure. He's sure he made the right choice, and he knows that he's never happier than when he falls back in love with her everyday.


End file.
